Sustainability Synopsis

Sustainability Synopsis:

From the first time I heard and discovered what sustainability was I was both interested and intrigued. The concept of this new idea was amazing because I had never thought or heard of it before. After some research on how this new “sustainability thing” worked, I saw that it was not a feasible solution to the built environment problem.

The biggest reason I feel that it is not feasible to be sustainable is because it is extremely expensive. When you start to price the materials and do research on the ways that certain buildings should be built, you ask the question who can afford this besides someone who is well off. After more research on sustainability, the new question became, why or who would create something that impacts the built environment in such a positive way so unaffordable and in a sense unattainable?  After asking these questions and coming to some of my own decisions, my mind was made up that this idea, this notion of a sustainable world was garbage. The phrase that I use with certain things of this nature is “it sounds good”. If this whole sustainability creation was meant to do what it says it is meant to do then why not make it available to the masses and make it for the masses.  After having all of these preconceived ideas on sustainability, I enrolled in Anna’s sustainability class which saved sustainability in my eyes.

After being in her class I was able to see sustainability from a different point of view, which was from the pioneers and advocates of sustainable design. Granite, my complete view point has and did not change but I was able to be somewhat apathetic to their plight. I was able to see that it was not just a notion that sounded good but rather a somewhat premature solution to a problem that has had over 150 – 200 years to develop. By coming to that realization I was able to see that there would be flaws and that there is not exact template to creating sustainable design.  Hearing their reasoning and seeing their stand point made me feel that they care about this issue and that it is possible to accomplish. The only thing that I did not like was that there are so many different views on how to solve one serious problem. As I said before I know that there is not a certain template but I do believe that in order to solve this problem in the built environment with the solution of sustainability all of the pioneers need to come together and create one or two solutions.

In creating specific solutions to sustainability, it does bring up an interesting thought which is, sustainability should not exist. The reason that I say this is because we are treating sustainability as a separate design principle when it should just be incorporated in all aspects of design. Once the design world makes that commitment to just incorporate certain design principals there will be no need for the design category called sustainable design because it will be a part of design. This is another reason why I say that sustainable design “sounds good”, because if they were real about this issue it would be mandatory to design with sustainable principles in mind.  

In closing I have seen that there are a lot of up sides to sustainability. As I continue to research and gain further knowledge I do realize the advantages that can and will come from sustainable design.  There are just some politics and implementation ideals that need to be put into place.

Anna,

Thank you for the class, it opened my eyes to a lot.